Fairly thin juvenile SF. Though there's an alien vessel entering the solar system, almost the entire short novel is about the mishaps of Barbary as she smuggles her cat onto a research space station. After quite a few chapters, we get a few brief glimpses into what makes Barbary and her "sister" Heather tick. More would have been good. There's a good attempt to describe what it's like to live inside a spinning wheel, but the outside -- hard vacuum in every direction -- is never well conveyed.

Not bad as in throw against the wall, but nothing to seek out. ( )

Barbary by Vonda N. McIntyre


Since I have been reading science fiction literature related to cats lately, I thought I would have a look at this classic story from the 1980s.

This is a work of children's/young-adult fiction, so more mature readers may feel that the content is a little lacking in depth. It is a relatively short book, and the writing style of the author makes it engaging and very easy to read.

The main plotline is about a twelve-year-old girl who smuggles a cat onto a space station, while a first-contact subplot unfolds in the background.

The characters are well developed and realistic, and there are women in positions of influence in science and government. The young people (Barbary and Heather) care about the kinds of things you would expect. Thus, while the attention of the adults in the story is firmly fixed on the alien craft swiftly approaching the space station, the two girls are more concerned with the activities of Mickey the cat.

Although this book was written in the relatively recent 1980s (which I remember well), there are aspects which make it feel dated. Firstly, the spaceport security is frighteningly lax, which marks this as a pre-911 work of fiction. Secondly, although the girls interact with talking computers, there are none of the handheld devices which now rule the lives of many people.

Despite those excusable divergences from our reality, the ways in which the laws of physics affect life on a space station are described very convincingly, and are more detailed and accurate than the depictions in many novels written for more mature audiences. Vonda McIntyre's Barbary would undoubtedly be a good introduction to hard science fiction for young people. In addition, the aliens are also quite believable and certainly not of the stereotypical little-green-man kind.

I am sure that if I had read this book as a child, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. As an adult and regular reader of science fiction, I still found it satisfying. So much so, in fact, that I have gone on without delay to read the award-winning novel Dreamsnake by the same author.


( )

Barbary is on her way to the space station to live with a new family, but she keeps being bumped from the shuttle by VIPs. An alien ship is approaching Earth, but Barbary is more concerned with her own secret.

Okay, but definitely a children's book. ( )

Barbary is a twelve-year-old girl who has spent a good deal of time in the foster system, enjoys magic tricks, and likes cats--one imparticular, named Mike.

When the story starts, she is awaiting placement on a shuttle that should take her to the space station. Her trip to her new family--where she will be under the care of an old friend of her mother--has been repeatedly delayed. Barbary gets more an more nervous, because she is smuggling--and the adventure only gains momentum with the introduction of other beings--aliens approaching the space station!

This is an enjoyable book; the style and the heroine also make it a good novel for young adults. All in all, an enjoyable if quick read. ( )